Smart Payment Association Reports Shipment of 2.5 Billion Units of cards and modules in 2024

The Smart Payment Association (SPA) today announced that its members and Advisory Council members  shipped 2.5 billion payment cards and payment chip modules in 2024, marking a return to 2022 shipment levels following an extraordinary spike in 2023.

This normalization is primarily attributed to a correction in the segment of payment chip modules which are integrated in subsequent manufacturing steps into fully assembled payment cards. Abnormal supply and demand disruptions in this segment were caused by the Covid pandemic and the resulting chip crisis.

In 2023, chip module suppliers capitalized on business lost during the 2022 global chip shortage, since many of their customers wary of future disruptions, stockpiled modules. While these inventories were mostly reported by SPA previously, they were largely deployed to the market with delay, leading overall to the observed decline in new shipments in 2024.

Despite this correction, the payment card market itself remains remarkably stable and shows resilience. A significant highlight continues to be the widespread adoption of contactless technology: 92% of all cards shipped globally in 2024 were contactless-enabled, underlining the growing popularity of fast, secure tap-and-go transactions. All countries have now adopted NFC technology, with strong continued growth observed in the United States, Latin America, and Japan. Notably, countries that were slower to migrate to contactless are now on par with early adopters—India, for example, now leads globally with a 98% contactless adoption rate.

Sustainable card shipments also showed strong momentum. The shipment of sustainable payment cards grew by 28% in 2024 globally, now representing one-third of all cards shipped worldwide. Europe continues to lead this transition, with 76% of its card shipments being sustainable. This positive trend is expected to accelerate further, with SPA members supporting issuers' transition to comply with global payment scheme mandates targeting 2028.

A full breakdown and analysis of all results is available for sale to non-members. As part of its extensive market monitoring activities, the SPA has established two Advisory Councils to enable non-SPA members to access the most up-to-date marketplace data available.